Eschalon: Book III - Now on Steam Greenlight

Eschalon: Book III brings the award-winning RPG trilogy to a climatic end as you seek to uncover the mystery of your past, the secrets of the Crux stones, and who the Orakur really are. You’ll traverse miles of virtual wilderness and dungeons, filled with secrets and danger, in an unparalleled role-playing experience designed to feel like a true pen-and-paper RPG.

Dozens of fan-requested features and updates to the engine and rule set.

Hundreds of graphic updates including re-rendered tiles, new spell effects, and enhanced environment effects. New sound effects and music in crystal-clear HD audio via an updated sound engine.

Expanded stats for creatures give them new abilities, defenses and vulnerabilities. Combat will require new levels of strategy.

New spells and hundreds of new items for you to discover. A huge world filled with secrets, riddles, traps, treasure, and glory awaits you!

Book III is not a dumbed-down “RPG for the masses”. Rapid button clicking won’t save you here. Eschalon pays honor to the greatest RPGs of the past, with unlimited character development options and freedom to explore the world as you wish. The difficulty of the game does not scale to your character.

Developer tools to be released shortly after the availability of the game. Build your own maps and make your own adventures!

I loved the first two (Beat the first, about halfway through the second) but my biggest problem with them, and probably my #1 pet peeve in CRPGs, is the random loot.

In an ARPG I'm not bothered by it, but in an RPG where chests don't respawn and monsters don't re-materialize, It's really annoying to open up a heavily guarded golden chest only to get sandals and some ectoplasm. I developed a habit in this game of saving before any chest openings and reloading it until I get something substantial…and that often takes a half an hour or more of time.

Man, I could NEVER get into Eschalon. Really regret spending money on 2. It says "Rapid button clicking won’t save you here", as if the combat's any good. But it's just as shallow as Diablo's except it's phase-based.

Originally Posted by JackDandy
Man, I could NEVER get into Eschalon. Really regret spending money on 2. It says "Rapid button clicking won’t save you here", as if the combat's any good. But it's just as shallow as Diablo's except it's phase-based.

I totally agree with you there. Lack of action points system really makes the combat boring. Tactics? What tactics? Only thing you can do is clicking the button repeatedly and hope it doesn't miss the target.

— "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Originally Posted by DungeonHack
. I developed a habit in this game of saving before any chest openings and reloading it until I get something substantial…
.

Most games I just deal with the random loot and only occasionally do the reload thing. But the loot was so weak in the early game (2) and I had turned on the food and water requirements that I was not able to survive without some kind of cash flow from those chests.

I just finished book 2 just a couple months ago. I'm not sure if I'm ready to jump right into Book 3 today but I will finish up the trilogy someday soon.

man people are complaining. I've had a blast with eschalon 1,2. not a fan of mass effect, witcher or dragon age. really bad D&D. very nice graphics but really boring and uninspiring. the new indies totally did it for me. eschalon, inquisitor, black fortress, driftmoon. the best rpg's I've played in the last years. and I've played most RPG created since the beginning of computer age(yes, SSI also).

Originally Posted by rikus
man people are complaining. I've had a blast with eschalon 1,2. not a fan of mass effect, witcher or dragon age. really bad D&D. very nice graphics but really boring and uninspiring. the new indies totally did it for me. eschalon, inquisitor, black fortress, driftmoon. the best rpg's I've played in the last years. and I've played most RPG created since the beginning of computer age(yes, SSI also).

It's called different tastes; in case you're wondering. I've played everything too, but I didn't enjoy Eschalon Book II. The silly meta-gaming, "Play always with one foot up your ass and you'll earn a 20% bonus to your end score" turned me off. I'm glad other folks enjoyed that but it makes me 100% unlikely to buy Eschalon III, if that stuff is in there.

I believe I'm a minority here as most folks on the Watch enjoyed that aspect or just ignored it. I felt the whole game was designed poorly because of that silliness and enjoyed Book I much more.

Originally Posted by rikus
man people are complaining. I've had a blast with eschalon 1,2. not a fan of mass effect, witcher or dragon age. really bad D&D. very nice graphics but really boring and uninspiring. the new indies totally did it for me. eschalon, inquisitor, black fortress, driftmoon. the best rpg's I've played in the last years. and I've played most RPG created since the beginning of computer age(yes, SSI also).

Oh I was there too, with a C64 and much later a 486. Played the SSI Goldbox titles, gobbled up every single TSR licensed game that ever existed. Loved them all.

However, like crpgnut said, it's different tastes. I liked Eschalon but the random loot killed it for me. You look at all of those old SSI CRPGs and what do you see? Static loot. Every chest had the same things, every corner to a maze had the same goodies stuffed within. Even the game my username comes from (dungeon Hack) had static loot…sure the levels were randomized but play the same dungeon rules long enough and you begin to see that the same things appear in approximately the same places.

The loot randomization gimmick, in non-action RPGs anyway, has always seemed like lazy programming. A better balanced game IMO should be set up to dole out equipment in a gradual way so as to keep you on somewhat equal footing with the increasingly hard monsters.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
It's called different tastes; in case you're wondering. I've played everything too, but I didn't enjoy Eschalon Book II. The silly meta-gaming, "Play always with one foot up your ass and you'll earn a 20% bonus to your end score" turned me off. I'm glad other folks enjoyed that but it makes me 100% unlikely to buy Eschalon III, if that stuff is in there.

I believe I'm a minority here as most folks on the Watch enjoyed that aspect or just ignored it. I felt the whole game was designed poorly because of that silliness and enjoyed Book I much more.

The game wasn't changed in design at all for the challenges. It didn't affect your game unless you wanted it to. I'm not sure how that would really ruin it for anyone really.

I've been thinking, screw Steam. Many posters were complaining why Basilick even had to go through the Greenlight process. I look forward to the game but I hope it will be available on GOG, just like Books 1 & 2.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
The silly meta-gaming, "Play always with one foot up your ass and you'll earn a 20% bonus to your end score" turned me off. I'm glad other folks enjoyed that but it makes me 100% unlikely to buy Eschalon III, if that stuff is in there.

no, that's what I meant exactly. That's what bothered you? I haven't even used that system of achievements. it was always for me the story and gameplay. which was just excellent. in SSI's, however brilliant, were much more annoying with constant random battles in resting places, making you load lots of time for saved games. That's why I don't understand why people called "tastes" if they played and enjoyed much more grinding games.